QIA takes federal government to court over fisheries

Story by The Canadian Press  • 16h

 The Qikiqtani Inuit Association has launched a court challenge against a recent decision by the Department of Fisheries and Oceans to transfer valuable Nunavut-adjacent water fishing licences in the Davis Strait to “non-Inuit southern interests.”

The Qikiqtani Inuit Association (QIA) is arguing that there is and will be significant economic loss incurred to Inuit, including “direct and indirect benefits for Inuit that have not been realized since the creation of the territory in 1999.”

Citing Article 15 of the Nunavut Agreement, the QIA is accusing the Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO) of a failure to fairly distribute commercial fishing licences in adjacent waters, which is a “viable pillar of the Nunavut economy [that] requires addressing unequal and unjust treatment of Inuit within the fisheries.”

The QIA emphasized that this is a crucial decision in the ongoing matter of reconciliation.

“Economic development,” the regional Inuit association states, “is an important way to affirm and enact Inuit jurisdiction and authority while building the Inuit economy.”

The QIA cites the importance of improving the “blue economy” — sustainability in fishing and marine practices — as well as managing the risks and best practices in an industry so heavily dependent on the extraction of non-renewable resources. In addition, non-Indigenous jurisdictional concerns play a part in how these practices and the balance of the economy is meted out. The Qikiqtani-based organization says it is attempting to work with the federal government on the “a fisheries reconciliation approach to quota distribution.

“Increasing Inuit participation in fisheries is therefore a tangible way that QIA can advance economic development while minimizing the need to further expand non-renewable resource extraction activities,” the QIA stated.

With this court challenge, the QIA is also aiming to increase protected areas by 30 per cent by 2030.

Economic losses quantified

The Qikiqtani Inuit Association carried out an economic analysis “to better understand the consequences on Inuit resulting from the federal government’s failure to increase access to the fisheries.”

Its findings were that between 1993-2022, $600 million in indirect economic Inuit benefits were lost, as well as, $450 million in lost economic opportunities. Furthermore, “these economic losses are likely to extend into the future if there is no change in approach and decision-making in Nunavut’s adjacent waters fisheries quota by the federal government.”

When asked for clarification, the QIA gave examples of indirect benefits as the additional economic benefit to the Inuit economy from higher income in the fisheries sector, the social returns from policies and programs undertaken by Inuit organizations that collect fisheries royalties and the reinvestment of profits by Inuit-owned fisheries businesses into productive activity.

“QIA identified Nunavut fisheries as holding many potential opportunities… fishing represents an important economic base for Inuit specifically, which has important socio-economic impacts – for example, commercial fishing licences are all held by Inuit-owned companies, and the industry is intended to create locally-based training and job opportunities specifically for Inuit… To date, Inuit have not seen their fair share of quota in the adjacent water fisheries” the QIA stated. “As a key component of our recent Qikiqtani-Project Finance for Permanence Agreement in Principle, QIA is working to reinforce Qikiqtani Inuit control and care of the land and water, including those waters in the offshore and adjacent to the Qikiqtani region.”

The court heard the legal challenge, known as a “judicial review,” in Iqaluit on Oct. 16-18. It was not known at the time of writing when a decision will be rendered.

Kira Wronska Dorward, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, Nunavut News

Ontario Urges National Summit on Alberta’s CPP Withdrawal Proposal

ONT LIKE 90% OF ALBERTANS 

OPPOSES THIS STUPID IDEA

Story by Olalekan Adigun  • BNN BREAKING NEWS 

Ontario, one of Canada’s most populated provinces, has called for an urgent national summit. The topic of concern is a controversial proposal by Alberta Premier Danielle Smith to withdraw Alberta from the Canada Pension Plan (CPP). This plan, if actualized, could potentially reshape the retirement landscape across the country, affecting millions of working people and retirees.

A Disproportionate Contribution?

Smith argues that Albertans are currently contributing more than their fair share to the CPP. She believes that Alberta is owed an astronomical sum of $334 billion, which is more than half of the total value of the CPP. To test the waters, a task force is currently holding hearings in Alberta to gauge public sentiment on the potential withdrawal. If public sentiment aligns with Smith's vision, a referendum could be on the horizon by 2025.

The Ontario Perspective

Ontario, however, has raised eyebrows at the calculations behind Alberta's claim. The province is demanding a firm estimate of Alberta's share of the CPP assets before moving forward with a referendum. Ontario's opposition to Alberta's plan, coupled with criticism from other provinces and pension experts, brings to light questions about the feasibility and potential consequences of Alberta's proposal.

Related video: Finance ministers to meet on Alberta's proposal to leave Canada Pension Plan (The Canadian Press)  Duration 2:57  View on Watch

One key concern is the increased financial burden that may befall other Canadians. Ontario argues that the CPP's strength lies in its pan-Canadian approach, a shared responsibility that provides stability and security for workers and their families. By leaving the CPP, Alberta could disrupt this balance, potentially affecting the retirement savings of millions of Canadians.

Lessons from Ontario's Experience

Ontario's own experience with a standalone provincial pension plan, the Ontario Retirement Pension Plan (ORPP), serves as a cautionary tale. When federal departments and the Canada Revenue Agency refused to assist with the management of the ORPP, Ontario had to establish its own pension administration corporation. This experience casts a shadow over Alberta's assumption that federal entities would willingly take on the administration of an Alberta pension program.

In addition to concerns about the feasibility of Alberta's plan, there are questions about the accuracy of the calculations behind the claim that Alberta is owed $334 billion. Ontario's own calculations suggest a discrepancy. If Alberta's formula were applied to Ontario, it would be owed 63% of the CPP's total value, which contradicts Alberta's claim and raises concerns about the potential impact on other provinces.

Ontario's opposition to Alberta's proposal, along with criticism from other provinces and pension experts, emphasizes the complexity and potential consequences of withdrawing from the CPP. The ongoing dispute underscores the importance of a pan-Canadian approach to retirement savings, and the need for a national conversation on the subject.

UCP resolutions contentious, but most unlikely to become policy: Political scientist

Story by Matthew Black  •  Edmonton Journal

Premier Danielle Smith speaks during a Calgary Chamber of Commerce luncheon at the Hyatt Regency hotel in Calgary on June 29.

Members of Alberta’s governing United Conservative Party (UCP) are set to vote on a series of policy proposals at their upcoming convention, though the likelihood of any of those changes becoming government policy remains unclear.

The UCP’s annual general meeting is set for Nov. 3 and Nov. 4 in Calgary where delegates will vote on 51 resolutions, including 30 policy proposals .

Those include a pushback against Ottawa’s clean electricity regulations, calls for a school voucher system, and an end for funding of supervised consumption sites.

Other resolutions seek changes to parental rights, treatment of transgender prisoners, and availability of material some deem offensive in schools. About one-fifth of the resolutions address some kind of grievance from the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic; others assert conspiracy theories around 15 minute cities and electronic voting machines.

Mount Royal University political scientist Duane Bratt says while some of the resolutions are eye-catching for varying reasons, it would be a mistake to equate those with the views the party or government will put forth to the public, even if members vote in support.

“There is a wide gap between an election platform and policies adopted at a party convention,” he said.

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“They get a lot of attention, but let’s just see how many actually go through that whole cycle and end up as a public policy.”

There are also resolutions calling for the elimination of diversity, equity and inclusion offices in post-secondary institutions, the creation of a bill of parents rights minimizing the role of “activist professionals” in education, and banning schools form using race as a factor in admissions.

Bratt says what those resolutions do is highlight the views of the party’s most activist members.

“Those are the ones that show up.”

That dynamic, Bratt said, is apparent at all party conventions, noting provincial NDP leader Rachel Notley’s 2016 opposition to the federal NDP-supported Leap Manifesto, which called for the end of fossil fuels as an energy source.

It will also be a different dynamic than when Jason Kenney led the UCP.

“Transgender issues, parental rights, COVID medical stuff, none of that existed,” Bratt said.

“That just shows the dramatic change in politics in this province.”

It will also be a test for Take Back Alberta (TBA), the group credited by some for driving the party’s policies and encouraging enough of its members to attend the convention that a switch to a bigger venue was needed.

“This is going to be a test of TBA’s strength, not just in controlling the board, but in winning these votes and then seeing if they actually get implemented,” Bratt said of TBA.

Premier Danielle Smith will also have navigate her relationship with TBA, whose supporters appear to back some of the resolutions arounds parents rights and gender pronouns in schools, something Smith has been reluctant to speak out against in the past.

“There’s a huge gap between the personal beliefs of Danielle Smith and a political reality within our own party,” Bratt said.

“I don’t think she’s going to be able to avoid it.”

Walking that metaphorical tightrope will not be easy for the premier, Bratt said, bearing in mind the party turfed Jason Kenney as leader when he was a sitting premier not long ago.

He cautioned that any cracks in party unity that emerge at the convention could grow in the months to come.

“Is it actually about the resolution or is it about something wider?”

Feds need to address impact of St. Lawrence seaway strike, stakeholders say

Labour Minister  says he won't interfere in negotiations beyond providing federal mediation between the company and Unifor. 

Story by Nicole Williams • CBC

Canada's labour minister says he won't interfere in negotiations to end the strike at St. Lawrence Seaway Management Corp., but those who rely on the shipping channel argue there's no time to wait for a deal with millions of dollars in grain at stake.

About 360 employees with the government-established company have been on the picket line since Sunday after negotiations broke down with union representatives at Unifor.

Company and union officials are expected back at the bargaining table on Friday when they sit down with federal mediators in Toronto.

For now roughly 100 ships, including cargo vessels, have been halted along the artery of the St. Lawrence River between Montreal and Lake Erie.

The union is demanding higher wages for workers and for the company to address "a toxic workplace," said National President Lana Payne from the picket line Tuesday.

"We want a reasonable agreement for our members," Payne said. "But it takes two to tango and the reality is ... this employer has not been willing to make a serious offer."

In a statement released earlier this week, company officials said they were "pleased" to resume talks with Unifor and they have been "extremely concerned" with the impacts caused by the current strike.

They said work is ongoing to reach a "mutually beneficial agreement."


Lana Payne, national president of Unifor, talks to St. Lawrence seaway workers from a picket line in St. Catharines, Ont., Tuesday. (Paul Smith/CBC)© Provided by cbc.ca
Port running out of grain storage

Even if a deal is reached by Friday the strike has already hurt local producers, said Robert Dalley, who manages the port in Johnstown, Ont.

Truckloads of soybeans harvested by local farmers continue to be delivered to the port — approximately 5,500 tonnes every day — and stored inside grain elevators.

Ships are typically scheduled to come once a week to load and deliver the supply to buyers, which in turn creates more room for storage at the port.

"When those vessels stop, eventually the system will back up," said Dalley.



A lineup of trucks at the Port of Johnstown is seen delivering soybeans harvested from local farmers. Dalley says there will be no more room for the 5,000 tonnes of soybeans each truck brings if there is no ship to take them in the next few days. (Nicole Williams/CBC)© Provided by cbc.ca

About 125,000 tonnes of soybeans are yet to be harvested this season but will have nowhere to go, and potentially cost farmers $62 million in lost revenue, he added.

This is the consequence of the strike and the corn harvest could also be affected next, which is why Dalley urged both the union and Seaway to come to an agreement quickly.

Related video: 'This stops global trade': The impact of the St. Lawrence Seaway Strike on Western New York (WKBW Buffalo, NY)  Duration 2:56   View on Watch

"As a worldwide exporter of grain, of soybean, we need to be reliable. We need to be able to move our grain into the port and move it out to Quebec and over to the European markets," he said.

"When you don't do that and people are waiting for it, they will find it somewhere else."
No back-to-work legislation planned

Those concerns are echoed by federal officials who are keeping a close eye on the situation, but said they have no plans to intervene in negotiations. They continue to urge both parties to return to the bargaining table.

"We just keep talking to our American counterparts. They're obviously very concerned and have a lot at stake, as do a lot of members of this caucus around the Great Lakes communities," Labour Minister Seamus O'Regan said Wednesday.


Labour Minister Seamus O’Regan says he won't interfere in negotiations beyond providing federal mediation between the company and Unifor. 

(Adrian Wyld/The Canadian Press)

The Canadian Chamber of Commerce (CCOC) has called on the government to "immediately intervene to prevent further damage to supply chains and limit the impact on Canadians," saying the situation can't wait until Friday.

"Canada is at a critical point right now," said Pascal Chan, senior director of transportation, infrastructure and construction at the CCOC.

"Our supply chains are fragile and they have been impacted over the last few years by events such as wildfires, floods, the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as most recently the port strike in British Columbia."

Other groups such as the Canadian Federation of Independent Businesses have asked the government to keep the seaway fully operational to minimize damage to small and large markets as negotiations continue.

 

 

Exclusive-Shell cuts low-carbon jobs, scales back hydrogen in overhaul by CEO

Story by By Ron Bousso  • 

A view shows a logo of Shell petrol station in South East London, Britain, February 2, 2023.

 REUTERS/May James//File Photo© Thomson Reuters

By Ron Bousso

LONDON (Reuters) -Shell will cut around 15% of the workforce at its low-carbon solutions division and scale back its hydrogen business as part of CEO Wael Sawan's drive to boost profits, the company confirmed in response to a query from Reuters on Wednesday.

The staff cuts and organizational changes come after Sawan, who took the helm in January, vowed to revamp Shell's energy transition strategy to focus on the most profitable renewables and low-carbon business, steady oil production, and grow gas output.

Shell will cut 200 jobs in 2024 and has placed another 130 positions under review as part of a drive to reduce the headcount in the unit, a spokesperson said.

Some of these roles will be integrated into other parts of Shell, the company added.

"We are transforming our Low Carbon Solutions (LCS) business to strengthen its delivery on our core low-carbon business areas such as transport and industry," the company said.

The LCS operations include the hydrogen and other businesses looking at decarbonizing the transport and industry sectors, but does not include the renewable power business.

Shell managers last week held several town hall meetings with the LCS division where the job cuts and organizational changes were announced, company sources said.

(Reporting by Ron Bousso; editing by Jason Neely and Jan Harvey)

Related video: Shell cuts jobs in low-carbon, scales back hydrogen (Reuters)
Duration 1:24
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BC

First Nations petitioning to stop Canfor logging

Story by The Canadian Press  • 

West Moberly First Nations have filed a B.C. Supreme Court petition to protect the Anzac and Table River area from logging proposed by Canfor, claiming Treaty 8 rights and the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP) have been breached.

Specifically, West Moberly are challenging a cutting permit and road permit amendment issued September 26, stating they weren’t notified that Canfor had applied for the permits or that the province was considering issuing them, even after prior concerns that had already been raised to133 other forestry-related permits.

Known as Chuu Xaadeslii by the Dunne-za people or “Where the Water Starts”, West Moberly says the region would be significantly impacted by industrial activity.

An old growth analysis was provided by West Moberly to the province, noting that 82 percent had already been lost and all of the proposed clearcuts would remove another four percent, leaving only 14 percent, which is not enough to sustain their way of life.

According to the petition, Chief Roland Willson sent a June 13 letter to the province advising that West Moberly would impose a moratorium over all current or proposed forestry activities within the Chuu Xaadeslii region due to concerns with Canfor reports shared in January and October 2022. 

“The Province has not completed the necessary cumulative effects assessment needed to consider forestry activities in the Chuu Xaadeslii,” states the petition.

Mercury contamination in bull trout on the Crooked River, industrial land use in the Parsnip River watershed, unexpected turbidity in the Anzac River, loss of ability to engage in cultural practices due to forestry activities, and declines of caribou and moose populations are top concerns listed by West Moberly.

It’s also alleged the Ministry of Forests said discussions were ongoing with Canfor and the ministry promised to keep the nations updated. The petition notes West Moberly have yet to be informed on any outcome from those discussions.

Tom Summer, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, Alaska Highway News

 

By defending the squats, we defend the movement against the rotten world of authority

Comment, Oct 25th

From the ashes of Evros, central Greece and Rhodes to the mud of the valley:

Last summer, we experienced destructive fires and floods – the result of the political choices of the New Democracy government – with thousands of acres of land and lifelong struggles getting lost in the mud and the ashes. Political choices led to the death of dozens of refugees and local citizens and thousands of animals found dead, burnt or drowned waiting for the 112 of the eviction of their souls: the free social spaces and squats, the only barricade against the insufficiency of the state mechanisms.

The general antagonistic movement and the self-organized spaces build defences against the destruction, the inexistence and the neglectfulness of the state. Solidarity networks are established, and they dive into the fires and floods. Squats and self-organized spaces coordinate, setting up cooking places and organising the fulfilment of needs of the afflicted.

Resistance against barbarity. The state mechanism blames the afflicted while hitting the squats to disorient. Uprising now and always. While we drown in mud and fight the fires, the state does not waste any opportunity to attack self-organised structures. Self-organisation is the society we desire, of the elimination of oppression and the exploitation of humans on other humans, animals and the environment. Our lives are constantly in danger of being lost in the fires and floods, in the trains and ships, at the borders and by the uniformed murderers and the useless government funded people within our villages and cities. We defend the movement against the rotten world of authority by defending the squats.

Solidarity with all those struggling within or outside the walls against the system that gives birth and upbrings poverty, fascism, war and death. Get your hands off the squats. See you on the streets.

~ Autonomous Centre of Kavala & Squat Vyronos 3

UN report warns of catastrophic risks to Earth systems


AFP
October 25, 2023

Pakistani porters hike the Baltoro Glacier, July 14, 2023 

- Copyright AFP Guillem SARTORIO

Melting glaciers, unbearable heat and space junk: a month before crunch climate talks in the United Arab Emirates, a UN report published Wednesday warns about irreversible impacts to the planet without drastic changes to connected social and physical systems.

The Interconnected Disaster Risks Report identifies thresholds it calls “risk tipping points,” defined as “the moment at which a given socioecological system is no longer able to buffer risks and provide its expected function” — after which the risk of catastrophe increases significantly.

It focuses on six areas that connect the physical and natural world with human society: accelerating extinctions, groundwater depletion, mountain glacial melt, space debris, unbearable heat and an “uninsurable” future.

“As we indiscriminately extract our water resources, damage nature and biodiversity, and pollute both Earth and space, we are moving dangerously close to the brink of multiple risk tipping points that could destroy the very systems that our life depends on,” said Zita Sebesvari, the report’s lead author.

For example: underground water reservoirs represent an essential freshwater resource around the world and today mitigate half of the losses of agriculture caused by droughts, which are being exacerbated by climate change.

But aquifers themselves are now depleting faster than they can be naturally replenished: Saudi Arabia has already crossed the groundwater risk tipping point while India isn’t far behind.

In the case of accelerating extinctions, the report highlights the cascading effects of extinctions throughout food chains.

“The gopher tortoise, which is threatened with extinction, digs burrows that are used by more than 350 other species for breeding, feeding, protection from predators and avoiding extreme temperatures,” the report said.

If the gopher tortoise goes extinct, the gopher frog that helps control insect populations will likely follow, triggering effects throughout the entire forest ecosystem of the southeastern United States.

Mountain glaciers that store vast amounts of freshwater meanwhile are melting twice as fast as they did in the past two decades.

“Peak water” — the point when a glacier produces its maximum amount of water runoff due to melting — has been reached or is expected to be reached within the next ten years across small glaciers in Central Europe, Western Canada and South America.

“The 90,000+ glaciers of the Himalayas, Karakoram and Hindu Kush mountains are at risk, and so are the nearly 870 million people that rely on them,” the report said.

In the case of space junk, the report warns Earth’s orbit is in danger of becoming so full of debris that a collision triggers a chain reaction that threatens humanity’s ability to operate satellites — including those that provide vital early warning monitoring against disasters.

The report finds most solutions currently being implemented focus on delaying problems rather than genuinely addressing the root causes.

“We need to understand the difference between adapting to risk tipping points and avoiding them, and between actions that delay looming risks and those that move us towards transformation,” it said.

‘No limit’ to hell people can inflict on children, says artist Helnwein

AFP
October 25, 2023

Austrian-Irish artist Gottfried Helnwein, who is famous for his hyperrealistic paintings - Copyright AFP ISAAC LAWRENCE

Kiyoko METZLER

Art is “probably the only help one has to cope” in a world being traumatised by the wars in Gaza and Ukraine, one of Austria’s most famous artists told AFP.

“What is taking place is depressing,” said Gottfried Helnwein as a retrospective of his work opened Wednesday at Vienna’s Albertina gallery.

The provocative artist — who has worked with Marilyn Manson and the Rolling Stones — is known for his haunting photo-realistic paintings which depict violence, power and abuse inflicted on defenceless children.

“There is no limit to what people are capable of doing against someone who cannot defend themselves,” said the 75-year-old, whose work has often evoked his homeland’s dark Nazi past.

“When I see a child, in the current wars, wounded, crying or dying, it affects me.”

“The question (of) whether it is an Israeli or a Palestinian, a Ukrainian or a Russian child becomes superfluous” since it is “a human being who certainly does not deserve this”, he said.

The defenceless child is a “central figure” in Helnwein’s works.

For the artist, the child is also a metaphor for both human vulnerability and strength that is “completely at the mercy of the fairness of adults”.

His oeuvre also includes performances, photography and collaborations with controversial US shock rocker Manson — who married Dita Von Teese in his Irish castle — and German metal band Rammstein.

– Painting Hitler in blood –

Born in Vienna in 1948, Helnwein grew up in the shadow of two lost world wars, the Holocaust and the Nazi era weighing heavily on people’s minds.

“Vienna was a shit city after the war. Everything was grey and black, people were unfriendly,” he said of the smothering atmosphere he struggled to comprehend as a child.

“It was an appalling climate, because history is simply not without consequences.”

As a response, “very aggressive, rebellious art” emerged in Vienna in particular as a post-war generation of artists revolted against their parents’ legacy.

Through researching the horrors of the Nazi past and the Holocaust, Helnwein zeroed in on the topic of violence against the defenceless — especially children and women.

“I knew that the only way out for me to approach this subject was art,” he said.

Only when people are “emotionally touched” by his works does he consider them finished, the artist said.

Helnwein’s early pieces in the 1960s provoked public outcry when he used his own blood to paint Adolf Hitler.

His subsequent paintings would also frequently be confiscated and damaged.

“Over the past decades the attacks have decreased more and more. But there are always people who attack you,” Helnwein said, as he has learned to live with criticism.

Asked about his alleged links to the controversial Church of Scientology, Helnwein — who divides his time between Ireland and the US since leaving Austria in the 1980s — declined to comment.

The Vienna retrospective features more than 40 of Helnwein’s works from the past three decades and runs until 11 February 2024.

Heineken warns of slowdown in consumer demand

AFP
October 25, 2023


Dutch brewing giant Heineken said Wednesday that it sold less beer in the third quarter, noting that higher prices and the poor economic outlook was affecting consumer demand.

The company, whose stable of brands includes Amstel, Sol and Tiger, sold 63.2 million hectolitres of beer in the three months to end of September, a drop of 5.4 percent.

Like many firms, Heineken raised prices as inflation hit the cost of its inputs, so overall revenues still rose, edging 2.0 percent higher compared to the same quarter last year to 9.6 billion euros ($10.1 billion) during the quarter.

Commenting on the drop in sales volumes, Heineken’s chief executive Dolf van den Brink said that although “inflation-led pricing is tapering, we observe a slowdown of consumer demand in various markets facing challenging macro-economic conditions.”

But profits have been squeezed. The brewing giant does not provide a third quarter net profit figure, but based on its published data the firm earned 768 million euros during the quarter, a drop of 18 percent.

Over the first nine months of the year, profits were down 12.5 percent to 1.924 billion euros, with Heineken saying the figure included the effects of exceptional items like its exit from Russia.

Heineken completed its exit from Russia in August, announcing it sold its operations to the locally-based Arnest Group at an exceptional loss of around 300 million euros.

But CEO van den Brink noted that sales volumes trends were improving in half of the company’s markets and that the company would continue to pursue its strategy of containing costs and rebalancing towards growing markets.

Heineken left in place its outlook for a stable to mid-single-digit increase in operating profit in 2023 as a whole.

Heineken’s shares rose in morning trading but gave up their gains to stand flat in midday trading, while Amsterdam’s all-share AEX index was down 0.1 percent.

‘Severely punished’: Vietnam environmental activists face crackdown

AFP
October 25, 2023

Hoang Thi Minh Hong, pictured here in 2022, is the fifth Vietnamese environmentalist jailed for tax evasion 

- Copyright Hoang Vinh Nam/AFP Handout

Alice PHILIPSON

Hoang Thi Minh Hong had worried for months she could become the next environmental activist swept up in Vietnam’s crackdown, so she closed her NGO and began keeping a low profile.

But it wasn’t enough, and last month she became the fifth environmentalist jailed for tax evasion, in what activists see as a campaign to silence them.

Her conviction came less than a year after a group of donors including the United States and European Union pledged to mobilise $15.5 billion in funding as part of a Just Energy Transition Partnership (JETP) to help Vietnam switch to clean energy faster.

The deal was hailed by US President Joe Biden as part of Vietnam’s “ambitious clean energy future”.

“Hong doesn’t deserve a single day in jail, because she’s innocent,” her husband Hoang Vinh Nam, 54, told AFP.

“She worked for the environment, for wildlife, for a better place. And now she’s been severely punished for doing that.”

Just a week before Hong’s conviction, Ngo Thi To Nhien, director of an independent energy policy think tank working on the JETP implementation, and a leading Vietnamese energy expert, was also arrested. She was accused of appropriating documents from a state-owned power firm.

The country’s communist government tolerates no opposition to its one-party rule and regularly jails critics, but its recent focus on environmental activists appears to carry a particular message, said Jonathan London, an expert on contemporary Vietnam.

“What I think we’re seeing is a concerted effort… to declare that all matters of public concern are to be addressed by the party and its state alone,” he told AFP.

Environmental activism could pose a singular threat because it targets powerful economic interests, which in Vietnam “are always closely affiliated with state power”, he added.

– ‘Shut his mouth’ –

The arrests began in 2021 with the detention of Dang Dinh Bach, a legal adviser and NGO worker who worked on coal issues. He was sentenced to five years in prison on evidence his wife Tran Phuong Thao said was fabricated.

“He pursued justice and he was on the side of the weak,” the 29-year-old told AFP. “But his work touched upon the interests of companies and authorities, and they wanted to shut his mouth.”

In January 2022, authorities detained Nguy Thi Khanh, founder of Green ID, one of Vietnam’s most prominent environmental organisations.

She was an early and rare voice challenging Hanoi’s plans to increase coal power to fuel economic development. She was jailed later that year.

The 88 Project, which advocates for freedom of expression in Vietnam, found “serious irregularities” in the way criminal procedures and sentences were applied to Bach and Khanh — as well as two other jailed environmental activists: Mai Phan Loi, and Bach Hung Duong.

Bach received one of the heaviest sentences for someone convicted of tax evasion, despite the amount involved being much lower than in other cases with similar sentences, the group said.

Pham Thu Hang, a spokesperson for Vietnam’s foreign ministry, strongly rejected claims of a “politically motivated” crackdown on environmentalists, saying each individual had violated national law.

Khanh and Loi were both released from jail this year.

But Bach is still in prison, has been intimidated and beaten, and is refusing to pay back the $55,000 he is alleged to owe, said his wife Thao.

Authorities have threatened to confiscate the apartment where she lives with their two-year-old son, she said.

– JETP ‘not punitive’ –

Washington said it was “deeply concerned” by Hong’s conviction, and has urged Vietnam “to ensure its actions are consistent with… its international commitments, including to consult with non-government stakeholders as part of the Just Energy Transition Partnership”.

“We have had numerous conversations at every step along the way about respect for human rights and our concerns about the environmental activists,” a US government official told AFP.

Still, there has been little sign the International Partners Group (IPG) — the coalition of donors signed up to the JETP — see the arrests as jeopardising the agreement.

The arrests are “a major hindrance to Vietnam’s ability to not only achieve the JETP goals… but more broadly Vietnam’s own goals to achieve net zero”, a government official from an IPG country told AFP, speaking on condition of anonymity.

But, the JETP “is not set up in a way that is punitive”.

That is little comfort to Vietnam’s community of environmental activists who remain “very worried”, Hong’s husband Nam said.

One NGO worker, who declined to be named, said several accountants in the industry had quit their jobs, fearful of putting a foot wrong with regard to Vietnam’s complex tax laws.

Nam said Hong wrote to the tax department more than a year before her arrest and was told that CHANGE, her NGO, did not owe anything.

But now she has to pay back $300,000 — “more than the total income she received in the last ten years”, he said.

“It’s an injustice.”